Saturday, October 05, 2013

AND WE WILL STEER HER MIGHTILY SO

A SHORT WALK AROUND OUR HOUSE NETTED ME SOME MUSHROOM PHOTOS THIS AFTERNOON

It’s Saturday night & all is quiet on the Bayfield Bunch front. Slight change in travel plans for our arriving company & they will now be here Sunday instead of today. Had a few ideas for tonight’s post earlier but somewhere along the line they just kinda dried up & got blowed away like a couple Texas tumbleweeds. So I’m sitting here tonight staring blankly out the sunroom window in front of me with an empty mind. My dilemma is that if I don’t attempt to write something, I am faced with nothing to do for the next few hours. Watching night time television is not an option & it’s already too dark & too cloudy to load up Rascal Buns & go chase us down a sunset.

I remember years ago when a Saturday night would never present that kind of a problem. There was always something to do, somewhere to go, & lots of people to hang out with. Sunday nights were the stay home nights. But Friday & Saturdays were always action nights. Had a lot of fun in those days & did a lot of wild & crazy things. Life certainly was never boring. But that was years ago & despite the fun, the shenanigans, the tears, & the regrets, I’m just as content now to sit here staring out the window trying to think of something interesting to write about. My how the times have changed. I’m grateful for those changes now & it sure is a way nicer way to stay out of trouble on a once wild & whacky Saturday night:))

Two weeks from today we begin our journey. I am always a bit apprehensive before a long trip that is likely to last the best part of 6 months. I suspect other Snow Birds may feel the same way. I have always likened it to sailors of old when they would leave the safe & secure comfort of their seaport homes & harbors & venture out onto the vast unknown challenges of an unpredictable sea in their sturdy wooden sailing ships. Journeys ranging over thousands of miles which could take months or years. In a couple weeks we will leave the safe security & familiar surroundings of our home & once again venture out upon the highways & bi-ways of North America. Unknown challenges in a sturdy ship we have not yet sailed on. We do have good maps & we do have known destinations. And we do have us a well seasoned crew.

A WELL SEASONED CREW WITH OUR PREVIOUS VESSEL

The seas may get choppy, the winds & weather may alter our course but we’ll keep our heading straight & true for the American South West. Days may become becalmed & flat empty seas may tax our attention. We may not know when or where we are at day’s end but we’ll slip an anchor & lay at rest in the darkened hours under a canopy of glittering stars. Sunrises will ascend behind us as we navigate the back roads, the secondary roads, & the Interstates in search of the next day’s fiery sunset. In search of land just over the next swell, the next hill. Watching for a mountain top to begin rising tall & stately out of a distant hazy horizon. We will put our faith in our vessel & steer her mightily so………………………………

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The policeman was interviewing the man whose store had jus been robbed. “It’s bad,” said the owner, “but it’s not as bad as it would have been if he’d robbed me yesterday.” “Why is that?” the policeman asked “Because today everything was on sale.” ------------------------------------------------------------- - Tourists see the world, travelers experience it. - Home is where your pet is:)) - "If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans." (James Herriot) - The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward - The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL. - It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

Hi Al, You may not have thought you had much to say tonight - but you really touched me deeply with comparing your RV to a ship you had not yet sailed on, the seasoned crew, and all the feelings of leaving a Safe Haven - As I read your post I started hearing the song "Calypso" by John Denver playing softly in my mind. You made my Saturday night very special and full of memories and dreams - Thank You and Travel Safe - Moonfly13 (Cindy in Dayton, Ohio)

Fabulous mushrooms with the fluffy dresses on. We have never seen that type before. The red one was different than ours also. You lucky guy. Thanks for taking their pictures for us to enjoy.You do nutting Saturday turned you into quite a story teller, enjoyed it. We are down to 5 weeks and I am getting the weeby geebys already.

Yes we too remember the wild friday and saturday nights, late nights and lotsa friends.Nice and quiet now, love it!We are all getting anxious to hit the road,17 more days for us before heading to the southwest.

Ditto to what everyone has said about your "nothing to post". We should all be able to do so much with nothing. :)I never realized that there were so many pretty mushrooms around. Those are some "keeper photos" for sure.

Al,What a great post. We just passed the one year mark of being FTers. It was you and a couple of others that helped keep our embers glowing and our flames eventually ignite. We are here in T or C, NM now after a couple of months at Palatki, near Sedona, AZ. Thank you for the great info and inspiration. If you plan any road trips this winter, I have heard ou say you were going to. Head this way. You would really like the hot springs.

It is kinda strange. You and many others are getting ready to roll for the winter and we are in Michigan, about to roll down to Indianapolis for all of John's Dr. appointments in November. THEN....we get to head out back out on the road. Who knows, we just might see each other in Indy area....

Al, great post. I could really see those pictures in my mind - the ship sailing on the sea and the RV traveling the highway beside it. I always get anxious just before a trip too, but once on the road, it's smoothly sailing. Safe travels to you, Kelly & the bunch.

AL'S CAMERA EQUIPMENT

A sometimes asked question readers have about my blog is what kind of a camera do I use. Well I have 8 of them and use them all. Five Nikon DSLR's, two quality Sony point and shoots plus one older Canon point and shoot.

'UPDATE':: July 2017 Thanks to a very generous blog reader I have been able to update my Nikon camera equipment and supplement my camera gear with a couple additional fine Sony cameras as well.I now have a 'donated' Nikon D7200 sporting my new Nikkor 18-300 3.5 zoom lens. Also have picked up a new Nikkor 1.8 primary 35mm lens. In addition I also now have a Sony RX100-3 camera as well as a Sony Exmore Cybershot. I have given my Canon Powershot point and shoot camera to a neighbor.

- In early 2017 I replaced my Nikon D-90 camera with a new D-3400 after the 'auto focus' feature on my aging D-90 quit working. The Nikon D-90 had been my work horse camera sporting a Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 lens. I used this camera for most of my landscapes and I now have it set up for night photography where 'auto focus' is not necessary.

-My older faithful and favorite Nikon D-40 finally packed it in during the summer of 2015 and I replaced it with a new Nikon D-3100.

- Previous to my Nikon D-90, most of my photos were taken with my old faithful Nikon D-50 from 2006 to early 2011 whereupon the D-50 suffered a rather gruesome death when it fell off a table onto a cement porch in southeastern Arizona. The 70-300mm lens on the camera survived the fall but the D-50 did not. My Nikkor lenses are interchangable between the D-90 the D-3100 and the D-3400.